AUBURN — Gus Malzahn has never been interested in the cliché that players on the line of scrimmage near the football need a redshirt year to develop.

At Auburn, some are expected to play right away. Go ahead and add Marlon Davidson and Derrick Brown to that list of special talents that Auburn feels can be instant impact players right away.

Last weekend Davidson, a Greenville High graduate and former G.W. Carver player, recorded his first career sack in Auburn’s 51-14 win over Arkansas State. The former five-star player, who arrived at Auburn early in the spring, was the first Auburn true freshman defensive end since at least 1985.

In his tenure at Auburn, Malzahn and his defensive coordinators have never been shy about playing true freshmen when other programs would’ve tried to just have the player be groomed for future success.

“I think the special ones have a chance to (play right away),” Malzahn said. “If you look in the past, there have been some true freshman defensive linemen in our league and they earned it and they were ready. I think the same thing can be said for (Davidson and Brown) that you just said, those guys were ready to play.”

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Auburn sophomore defensive tackle Dontavius Russell talks about how the Tigers have played on the defensive line going into Saturday's game against No. 20-ranked Texas A&M
Duane Rankin

Carl Lawson had four sacks in his freshman season in 2013 alongside Montravius Adams, who had 20 tackles, seven quarterback hurries and 1 1/2 tackles for loss in his first season with the Tigers program. The duo of Lawson and Adams, who came back from their fourth season with the Tigers program, now has freshmen besides them on the line in the form of Davidson and former five-star defensive tackle Brown.

Brown, who was a U.S. Army All-American Bowl defensive player of the year, constantly moved the Arkansas State interior linemen backwards and had a single tackle Saturday night. However, the stat sheet doesn’t properly reflect what impact the 330-pound freshman had on the running game and pocket from Arkansas State quarterback Chad Voytik.

After being inserted late in the game last Saturday night, freshman secondary players John Broussard and Daniel Thomas recorded their first career tackle. Instead of protecting those players’ redshirt season, Malzahn believes there is no substitute for actual game experience at any age.

“It was good just to get those guys out there and see how it feels to get them out there in a college game,” senior defensive back Josh Holsey said. “Just to see those guys running around and keep applying the pressure was good. Especially on both sides, we got a lot of young guys on this team. Just to see them working on their technique because as we always say to them, you’re one play away from playing. That game experience means something to everybody.”

On both sides of the ball, Auburn (1-1) has already played 10 true freshmen and 10 redshirt freshmen in the first two games before they enter Southeastern Conference play against No. 20 Texas A&M on Saturday (6 p.m., ESPN).

“I think it’s the way that you recruit,” Malzahn said. “Guys want to play earlier. A lot of guys, especially if you have a good recruiting class, there’s a chance they could come out in three years.”